Let’s practice our grammar!

Les pronoms personnels

A pronoun replaces a noun in order to avoid repetition. Subject pronouns are subjects of verbs. In French, a subject pronoun is immediately or almost immediately followed by its verb. The use of subject pronouns is mandatory in French; always use a subject pronoun to construct sentences in the absence of a noun subject. Here are the French subject pronouns:

Subject pronouns are labelled by the term ‘person’, referring to the subject’s role in the conversation. 1st person refers to the person(s) speaking (I, we); 2nd person to the person(s) spoken to (you); and 3rd person to the person(s) or thing(s) spoken about (he, she, it, they).

je
Unlike the English pronoun ‘I’, je is not capitalized unless it begins a sentence.

tu
The pronoun tu is singular and, importantly, informal. Use tu to address people your own age and those you know well.

on
The pronoun on means ‘one’, or ‘they’ in a nonspecific sense: ‘comme on dit’ (as they say). On often replaces ‘nous’ in spoken French: ‘On y va?’ (Shall we go?).

vous
The pronoun vous is conjugated with a plural verb so it obviously refers to more than one person. However, it is also the customary form of address when you are talking to only one person you do not know well, such as an elder, a boss, a shopkeeper, etc. Inappropriate use of the tu form is considered a sign of disrespect.

il/elle
Il and elle besides meaning ‘he’ and ‘she’ can both express the meaning ‘it’ depending on the gender of the noun being replaced. For example:

ils/elles
Ils and elles are similar to il and elle since they agree with the gender of the noun they replace. Ils and elles may refer to people or things. Elles is used to mean ‘they’ if it replaces people who are all women or objects that are all feminine in gender. On the other hand, ils is used to mean ‘they’ for objects that are masuline in gender or a group of all men or any group where there is at least one male person or masculine object in the group.

Listen to the dialogue:

La phonétique

Les accents

The acute accent (´), l’accent aigu, and the grave accent (`), l’accent grave, are used to indicate the quality of the vowel sound represented by the letter e.

Listen to each example and repeat.

l’accent aigu

l’accent grave

When used with letters other than e, the accent grave does not indicate a sound difference but serves to distinguish different words which have the same spelling but different meanings.

l’accent circonflexe

The circumflex (ˆ), l’accent circonflexe, arose historically as a marker for vowels which were followed by another letter (usually s) in an earlier state of the language:

la cédille

The cedilla (ç), la cédille, is used only with the letter c to indicate the sound /s/ when it is followed by the letters a, o, or u. The cedilla is not used with the letters e and i:

le tréma

The dieresis (¨), le tréma, is used with vowels to indicate that they are pronounced separately from a preceding vowel:

Pratiquez: la phonétique

Placez les accents.

What accents are missing in these words from the vocabulary list of Chapter 1?

1. Vous etes d’ou?
2. À tout a l’heure.  À bientot.
3. Je me presente.
4. C’est un etudiant.
5. Ca va?
6. Il est ingenieur.  Elle est medecin.
7. C’est une fenetre.
8. Repetez, s’il vous plait.

Les réponses

1. Vous êtes d’où?
2. À tout à l’heure.  À bientôt.
3. Je me présente.
4. C’est un étudiant.
5. Ça va?
6. Il est ingénieur.  Elle est médecin.
7. C’est une fenêtre.
8. Répétez, s’il vous plaît.